Tag: active flexibility

How Breathing Affects Posture and Spinal Flexibility

As long as we are alive, we are breathing! So it is very useful to understand how breathing affects both our posture and our spinal flexibility. Many different muscles participate in the breathing process, and breathing is one of the few physical functions that is both automatic and under our control. While there is no wrong way to breathe, taking control of our breath and learning to strengthen our central breathing muscles like the diaphragm is a great tool to improve many aspects of our physical and emotional state, including posture and spinal flexibility.

How We Breathe Affects our Posture

The spine is designed to be extremely mobile, able to move forwards, backwards, twist, and side bend. For more information on spinal mobility check out this blog post on spinal anatomy for back benders.

The ability of our spine to take advantage of this exquisite range of motion depends in part on our posture. If we habitually stand and move in ways that force our back muscles to become tight and over-worked, we will find ourselves with tension, even pain. The muscles in our back and neck can become resentful and stressed out. The way we breath can either help or hinder our back’s ability to relax and feel full mobility.

Breathing Can Relax the Spinal Muscles

One of the most important skills we need in order to relax our spinal muscles is the full exhale. When we exhale all the way our rib cage drops down away from our chin and our diaphragm relaxes, created a dome shape up inside our rib cage. This big, muscular dome, even relaxed, provides a lot of support for the rib cage (called the zone of apposition), so when we exhale fully our upper back and neck muscles get a little break, lengthen out, and the rib cage just floats on that diaphragm.

Surprisingly, many of us don’t do a great job of exhaling. As I explain in my blog post on core muscles and how they coordinate together, a full exhale and relaxation of the diaphragm requires a corresponding increase in participation from the “meat corset” muscles that wrap around your waist (the transversus abdominus, the internal obliques, and the external obliques) as well as the pelvic floor muscles.

If we have neglected to develop our relationship with this group of core muscles, it will be hard for the diaphragm to relax and therefore we will never get that corresponding relaxation in our upper back and neck muscles.

10 Minutes of Breathing to Improve Posture and Spinal Flexibility

I created a 10 minute series of exercises that guide your body through a coordinated breathing routine that facilitates these long, complete exhales while encouraging your waist muscles to participate while your neck and spinal muscles to relax. It is a series of four exercises in increasing levels of challenge, each one building on the last to develop the deep awareness of both diaphragmatic relaxation and core engagement, with a little spinal flexion thrown in since this is the first direction that we want to spine to go if we are working to increase spinal mobility.

All you need to try it out is a spot on the floor and a few pillows to get comfy. No previous fitness experience or flexibility is needed to do this. It is an exercise for any body. If, as the exercises progress, you find yourself feeling tension in your back or unable to find the meat corset muscles, just go back to the first exercise for a while.

This series is a good way to start to strengthen your core muscles if traditional ab strengtheners like crunches feel awkward and miserable, or cause your neck and back to over work. It is also an excellent warm up for a core workout like Pilates, or for anything involving spinal flexibility like contortion, pole, dance, or yoga.

Happy Bendings!

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Can My Body Be Strong and Flexible at the Same Time? Yes!

One of the most common misconceptions about training is that you cannot train to be strong and flexible at the same time. This isn’t true. Just watch any luminaries of circus, gymnastics, or yoga and they will demonstrate a gorgeous combination of strength and flexibility, which is necessary in any of those disciplines.

Two woman back to back in standing fron splits

The standing front split is an example of a common pose in contortion and yoga that requires strength and flexibility.

 

The training method that makes this combination possible is active stretching.

Active stretching means using your own muscles to move your body into your end range of motion. It feels more like a strength-building exercise than a traditional stretch sensation.

To learn more, check out “What’s the Difference Between Active and Passive Stretching?”.

In a passive stretch, gravity or some other outside force causes the joint to move into a stretch, so no effort is needed. This is very good for lengthening muscle, and done repeatedly over time (recommended to do at least three stretch sessions a week for best results) muscles will accommodate greater and greater ranges.

However the issue with passive stretching alone is that it doesn’t teach your body how to support that new range of motion. An over-emphasis on passive stretching often means that the body is able to achieve positions where no muscles are able to work to support the joint. This can lead to a situation where you achieve flexibility at the cost of your strength.

Of course, the converse is also possible. Muscles build only and exactly how you use them, so if you are lifting weights and doing strength-training exercises in a small range, over time your body will start to be limited to that range and either wont move beyond that range, or will feel unstable and prone to injury when it does. The more strength you build in a limited range, the harder it will be to move outside of this range, thus sacrificing flexibility for strength.

Active flexibility strengthens a muscle through its full range of motion, with a particular emphasis on its shortest position. Muscles can only do two things: shorten or relax. They cannot actively lengthen themselves. That means that the most vulnerable position for a muscle is when it is at its shortest length, helpless.

When we stretch passively, an outside force squishes muscles into shortened positions, and the muscle becomes powerless and possibly very resentful. In an active stretch we only move the joint as far as that muscle is able to contract on its own. Over time, with repetition, the muscles becomes more competent at shortening and the range increases.

Flexibility earned by active methods will almost always be less than passive flexibility. However, active flexibility will be more comfortable, safer, more sustainable over time, stronger, and require less warm up. Active stretching builds strength, awareness, and control of the joint and is a powerful tool to prevent injury, degenerative disease, and chronic pain.

Being strong and flexible isn’t just important for contortionists and gymnasts. It is a component of healthy movement for all of us, keeping our bodies responsive, supple, and able to enjoy the world. The good news is that this type of stretching is available to all bodies at any age or fitness level. It is safe, effective, and can be done with minimal fuss, equipment, and warm-up.

Active stretching can take many forms and levels of challenge and can be applied to any skeletal muscle or joint in the body. It is one of the primary components of our work here at Fit & Bendy. For a super gentle full-body workout using a large number of active stretches, check out this free workout. Other full-length workouts are available through our Video Club or you can get live instruction through our courses and classes.

Happy Bendings!

 

 

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What’s the Difference Between Active and Passive Flexibility?

There are two different ways that we can measure our flexibility in any joint: active flexibility and passive flexibility. It is important to know the difference between them and how to use them to achieve your flexibility goals.

Active Flexibility

Active flexibility is the amount that we can use our own muscles to move into an end range position.

Active Flexibility Illustration

The active range is how far you can move into a stretch using your own muscles

So if I want to lengthen my hamstrings and the back of my leg, my active flexibility would be the amount that I could use my hip flexors to bring my leg closer to my body without touching it.

 

Active flexibility is the measurement of the shortened muscles’ ability to contract when it gets very short, which can be very challenging at first. Often active stretching doesn’t feel like a traditional stretch, it feels more like a strength exercise. Most of us aren’t used to strengthening our joints at our end range.

Active flexibility is essential for building strength and flexibility together, and keeping our joints stable. It’s important for addressing alignment, and correcting muscle imbalances that could be causing chronic tightness. It is also valuable for preventing injuries and making sure that our flexibility is helpful and useful for our chosen activities.

 

Passive Flexibility

Passive flexibility is the amount that we can move into an end range with help from an external force, whether it’s pulling with a strap, pushing from a coach, or gravity pressing us to the floor as it does in a split.

Drawing showing that passive flexibility is greater than active flexibility

Passive flexibility, using help to stretch, will almost always be greater than active flexibility.

 

 

To find my passive flexibility in my hamstrings/back of the leg, I would pull gently on my leg with my hands or a yoga strap, or have a knowledgeable coach push the leg into a deeper stretch.

Passive flexibility means that the resting length of your muscles and connective tissues is longer, and that your nervous system is comfortable with a larger range of motion. Passive stretching will increase those two factors and facilitate a feeling of relaxation and decreased pain.

Finding the Balance

It is very important to find the proper balance between active and passive stretching for your body and your goals. Passive stretching is often over-emphasized because it is better-known. Too much passive stretching can create unstable joints, less useful flexibility, and possibly injury, especially in hypermobile people.

If you are experiencing joint pain, difficulty with strength movements, or you are struggling to make any progress in your flexibility quest you may not be doing enough active stretching.

If there is a very big difference between your active and passive flexibility in any particular joint, incorporate more active exercises to decrease that difference. You will always have more passive flexibility than active flexibility, but it is our goal to minimize the difference in order to ensure the health of our joints and prevent injury.  FaB courses and Video on Demand service offer a variety of workouts combining the many approaches to stretching for optimal results.

 

Important Factoids about Active vs Passive Flexibility

1. Don’t let the name fool you, passive flexibility isn’t all about relaxation. When you are in a passive stretch you still need to engage your supporting muscles to hold your form. It is extremely rare that you want to be completely relaxed in a stretch as this can compromise your joint alignment and you may miss the tightest muscles that really need the stretch.

2. When it comes to passive stretching, more pressure does not mean more progress. Unless you are extremely muscled you don’t want to be pushing super hard on your stretches. Light to medium pressure is sufficient in almost all cases and more pressure can just cause tears and strains.

3. One of the reasons that active flexibility is so important is that the limiting factor in our flexibility isn’t always the muscle that’s stretching. Sometimes it’s the muscle that’s shortening. So that tightness in bringing your leg to your chest may be the result of hip flexors that don’t want to get shorter! If that is the case, contracting those muscles in an active stretch can be immensely helpful.

4. Active and passive stretching don’t have to be done separately, they can be combined. Play with alternating between the two, adding an active component to a passive stretch, and using movement in your stretches. For lots of ideas on how to do that check out our classes and video library.

Read more about the benefits of different varieties of stretching in this blog post, and check out the video below for all you visual learners who want to see these concepts in action.

Happy Bendings!

Kristina

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Stretching for Adults Part 3: Safely Building Useful Flexibility

 

In my experience, adults who would like to become more flexible excel when we approach our training with a devotion to the process rather than as a slave to the results.

The ideal approach to training flexibility is to use a variety of stretching techniques. Because an over emphasis on passive stretching can leave gaps in your development it is important to have other options. If you are encountering obstacles—pain, injury, poor alignment, weakness, feeling stuck—it may be time to try a new approach. The more tools you have at your disposal the better prepared you are to respond to your body’s needs as it opens up and changes.

All three of the common problems experienced by adults during flexibility training (discussed in Part 2 of the series) occur because passive stretching does not build strength, it only lengthens. Often we think of building flexibility and building strength as two different, even exclusive processes. The truth is that our flexibility in a given area can be hampered by weakness in the joints and muscles around it. Sometimes a muscle is tight because it is weak, and therefore feels like it has to be constantly contracted to do its job. These weaknesses can even be present in someone who is ripped and very strong in other ways. Building the strength that will help with flexibility requires specific techniques.

 

Methods to Safely Increase Flexibility in Adults

Active Stretching

Stretching a muscle or muscles by using the opposing muscle group. This means using your own strength to open a joint, for instance by lifting your leg and holding it in place, moving your arm back until you feel the stretch, or lifting into a cobra with no hands. Active stretching is extremely important in developing usable flexibility and in unlocking chronically tight joints. It works to stabilize loose joints and correct muscle imbalances. The greater the difference between your passive flexibility and your active flexibility the greater your risk of injury, the more pain you have during stretching, and the longer it takes to warm up. Active stretching is also effective for very muscular bodies that find it difficult to “relax” into a stretch.

Resistance Stretching

Placing the muscle in a passive stretch and resisting the stretch by contracting the stretched muscle for short (3-5 second) intervals and relaxing in between. This builds strength in the muscle at the full range of motion and may help the muscle to relax and lengthen more than it would with passive static stretching. It is useful for muscles that are chronically tight and weak and need both strength and length. It is best not to do more than three reps of contractions since this can exhaust the muscle and make it more prone to injury, but done correctly it can help to provide strength through the full range of motion.

Dynamic Stretching*

Controlled movement in and out of the stretch, for instance leg lifts, arm circles, flexing and pointing the foot, etc. Proper dynamic stretching means that you are in control of your body at all times, you could freeze if you wanted to, but you keep the body moving as a means of facilitating relaxation, developing strength and control, identifying improper alignment, and building body awareness. This is essential training for anyone who wants to use their flexibility in movement (dancers, martial artists, circus performers, etc) or as a warm up and injury prevention for any athletic activity. It is also very useful when working with a muscle that is full of fear and strenuously resists stretching. Moving in and out of the stretch will allow the muscle to gradually feel safer and relax.

Used in combination with passive static stretching these three methods can be employed for any muscle group to design the perfect workout for your body. Together they can help to stabilize the joints, build strength, and comfort the nervous system, problems not addressed when overly relying on passive stretching.

All four methods have the same goal: to allow the muscles to relax and lengthen with support, creating a body that is supple, strong, and under your control. They all work a little differently, and it requires an intimate, loving, and communicative relationship with your body to know which method will get those cranky muscles to loosen their grip and learn new behaviors.

There is no one-size-fits-all formula for the exact ratios between these methods because every body is different, plus your needs will vary depending on what you want to do with your flexibility. A body builder will need a very different set of exercises than a ballerina or a basketball player or an aerialist. A process of patient, careful experimentation will yield new discoveries.

In my experience, adults who would like to become more flexible excel when we approach our training with a devotion to the process rather than as a slave to the results. The desire to achieve a particular goal as fast as possible may deliver a speedy change but it will not give you safe, sustainable, useable results. Taking the time to feel your body, learn a variety of methods, and find techniques that work for you will yield lasting and satisfying flexibility.

Happy Bendings!

This short series is not intended to be an exhaustive treatise on the vast subject of flexibility and stretching science but a brief overview. It should not be considered a training manual or medical advice; if you are experiencing pain or injury from your training please consult a medical professional. I encourage bendy people everywhere to learn all you can about your body, how it works, and the various approaches to flexibility fitness. The more we know about how we work, the more efficient our training can be. Please stay in touch!

* Dynamic stretching must be distinguished from ballistic stretching which uses momentum to force the body into a greater range of motion (fast kicks past your comfortable range of motion, bouncing in a stretch, etc). Ballistic stretching should be approached with caution as it has a high risk factor for injury.

 

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